A 'paranoid' man who broke into a police station in Co Antrim claimed he scaled a security wall because he thought he was being followed.

Finbar Ciaran O'Connor (37), of Castle Street, Ballycastle, climbed over a perimeter at the town's police station just before midnight on Friday, January 5, this year, a prosecutor told Coleraine Magistrates' Court on Monday.

When police then offered to take him home from the Ramoan Road station, he became disorderly, kicked a PSNI car and spat.

When arrested he then exposed himself and urinated in the rear of a PSNI car.

O'Connor, who had a previous record, pleaded guilty to the two charges he faced - being disorderly at Castle Street, Ballycastle, and causing criminal damage to the interior of a police car.

He was not charged in relation to entering the police station.

A prosecutor said that at 11.55pm, police spoke to the defendant, who was intoxicated, at Ballycastle Police Station where he had climbed a perimeter wall.

Asking for clarification from the prosecutor, District Judge Peter King said: "He scaled a police station wall, he broke into a police station."

The prosecutor said the defendant "thought he was being followed".

The prosecuting lawyer said police were then taking O'Connor to his home address when he became disorderly, swore, kicked out and spat.

He was arrested and on the way to the custody suite at Coleraine PSNI Station he "exposed himself" and urinated on the rear seat of the police vehicle.

The prosecutor said the defendant said: "I asked on numerous occasions to go to the toilet. I have plenty of witnesses to that effect", and that it had not been his intention to damage anything.

The prosecuting lawyer said O'Connor also told police that the episode had arisen because he was "afraid for my own safety".

Judge King said both "paranoia" and "aggression" were involved in the case and he said assistance from probation was required.

A defence lawyer has yet to address the court regarding the matter.

The case was adjourned until March for the preparation of a pre-sentence report.

The PSNI website says that since April last year the enquiry office at Ballycastle was "no longer open to the public for routine business".